Most law enforcement officials still say legalization would be bad idea

Saturday

Jan 18, 2014 at 7:30 PMJan 18, 2014 at 7:49 PM

Brian Fraga Herald News Staff Reporter @BfragaHN

FALL RIVER — Voters across the country may be trending toward legalizing marijuana, but several local law enforcement officials still think it's a bad idea.

"There's no question about it, (marijuana) is a gateway drug that leads to despair, lack of hope and drug addiction," said Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, who adds that almost every inmate serving drug-related sentences at the House of Correction in Dartmouth began by smoking marijuana.

"No good is going to come out of that," Hodgson said. "We've seen the pitfalls of alcohol and how it can ruin people's lives. Now they want to legalize an additional drug that won't do anything to improve the quality of life to anybody. If anything, it will have an adverse effect on society. It's not the direction we want to go in."

Pro-cannabis advocates are laying the groundwork to get a question on the 2016 ballot that will ask Bay State voters to legalize recreational marijuana. Several recent polls show that more voters, especially young adults, support legalization, and Massachusetts voters have approved two ballot questions since 2008 that decriminalized possession of small amounts of pot — one ounce or less — and that gave the OK to medical marijuana.

In both those ballot measures, law enforcement authorities advised caution that slowly decriminalizing marijuana poses various public safety and health risks. Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter, who opposed the 2008 decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana, said this past week that he is also against outright legalization.

"I think the fewer legal drugs we have, the better it is for America," said Sutter, who also expressed concern over more adolescents getting access to marijuana, and the effect that could have on their brain development. Sutter also said increased widespread marijuana usage would pose safety hazards, especially on the roads with people driving under the influence, and added that a common argument cited by marijuana advocates — that the war on drugs has failed — is a "cliche."

"Has (the war on drugs) been an abject failure? Absolutely not," Sutter said, adding that society has "made strides" in reducing drug usage.

New Bedford police Chief David Provencher also said in a telephone interview that he still believes marijuana poses "significant health threats."

"Certainly, the evidence to date does not show that every single person who smokes marijuana went to use it as a gateway to other drugs, but there is still danger in that people who use the harder stuff almost always started with marijuana," said Provencher, who suggested that Massachusetts voters first see how the recent legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado shakes out before they approve a similar measure here.

"I can't comfortably support the idea of legalized marijuana," Provencher said. "There are too many unanswered questions about the long-term effects."

Provencher's counterpart, Fall River police Chief Daniel Racine, took a more neutral stance. He left the question of what should be legal or not to lawmakers and the community.

"What the law is, is what the community as a whole wants, so we're going to follow the law," Racine said, though adding that, as a parent, he would not want his children using marijuana, alcohol "or any other drug."

Meanwhile, Taunton police Chief Edward Walsh said he does not expect a spike in crime if marijuana does attain recreational-use status in Massachusetts.

"There will be no major impact," said Walsh, a 26-year police department veteran who believes it is "highly probable" that Massachusetts voters will welcome recreational pot within the next three to five years.

"It's not that big of a deal," said Walsh, who compared the current status of marijuana to that of home-brewed moonshine before Congress repealed prohibition in 1933. Walsh also said he expects legalizing recreational pot will be beneficial to the extent that it will help squeeze out illegal street dealers.

However, Hodgson does not buy the arguments that legalizing marijuana eliminates the black market and is a necessary step toward acknowledging the failure of the war on drugs. Hodgson said individuals serving marijuana-related jail sentences are habitual offenders and drug dealers, not first-time recreational users.

"So the argument that doing this reduces the amount of people in the (criminal justice) system is basically a red herring," said Hodgson, who believes the country should be thinking of new ways to eliminate the usage of marijuana, rather than its outright legalization.

"It's about political will, it's about attitude," Hodgson said. "Are we willing to do the right thing?"